Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) has had a neat recent history. It seems pundits keep wondering when the software giant's sales will stagnate, and the company continues pumping out one impressive quarter after another. Thursday's second quarter results for Ole' Softie should be more of the same.

Analyst estimates are for earnings of 46 cents per share on revenue of $15.9 billion for the quarter ended Dec. 31. With Microsoft shares up about 10% since last October, they are poised to go a little higher if the software giant's results are at or slightly above consensus estimates. The company raised its full-year guidance in October when it reported first-quarter results. There may be a few things at play here: sales of Windows Vista have continued to climb and the money-losing games division may have been helped by better-than-expected holiday sales of the Xbox 360.

Microsoft's Windows and Office businesses continue to rake in almost all the company's revenue. Bear Stearns analyst John DiFucci indicated that Microsoft's efforts in curbing piracy were bearing more fruit in emerging markets as well, as the software maker was "paid in emerging markets" where software piracy has traditionally been rampant.

[Disclosure: The author holds a long position in Microsoft]

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) will release its Q3 earnings this Thursday at 5:30 pm EDT, and it is expected that it will hit an earnings number of about $0.46 per share, up 43% from the year-ago quarter. No matter what seems to happen to Microsoft these days, the company keeps selling product and showing growth quarter after quarter. The company's prospects continue to be very stable, even with the negative press about Windows Vista, the company's new computer operating system.

What continues to propel this growth? Computer manufacturers are still buying Windows Vista licenses for almost every PC they sell in global channels these days, although recent reports state that PC growth in the first three months of 2007 was not buoyed by the release of Windows Vista in late January. Microsoft still sells a heck of a lot of Office productivity suites and server software (which have great margins) and gaming hardware like the Xbox 360 (lower margins).

With analysts predicting an EPS range of $0.45 to $0.47 this Thursday, there's not much of an argument on just how much money Microsoft made in the first quarter. No matter the amount, the company continues to plug along in fine fashion. Even if Windows Vista doesn't grow so fast in the first year of release, that doesn't mean it's doomed; the same thing happened with Windows XP over five years ago (to a point). Stay tuned Thursday for the Microsoft quarterly earnings liveblog right here on BloggingStocks.

[Disclosure: I own MSFT shares as of 4-23-07.]